Android 3.1 reaches Motorola Xoom users

Google and Motorola as promised have pushed out Android 3.1 to the Motorola Xoom. Although superficially intended for new features, the OS is now known to be noticeably faster. An early check on Tuesday by CrunchGear showed that apps loaded faster, transitions were faster, and the browser finally had iPad-like responsiveness that has never existed on Android before.

Early benchmarks contradict these results and have the Xoom running slower in Quadrant than it did in 3.0.1, though that may be a lack of optimization.

USB support mentioned earlier is now known to work with mice, much like the trackpad works on the Eee Pad Transformer. Scroll wheels should work on mice that have it. Widget resizing is now known to work for more than just Gmail, such as the bookmark widget.

The Movies app is somewhat disappointing as it amounts to a management app that kicks users to Android Market when they're ready to rent and either stream or download. MicroSD card support also still isn't in place, even three months after the Xoom reached stores.

More Android tablets are due to get 3.1 within the next two weeks.

By Electronista Staff

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gadgets, Verizon, Android, Motorola, Honeycomb, Xoom